


Love to Ease: Vice Versa

by voleuse



Series: Love to Ease [4]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:35:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25098517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: Five what-ifs for Rey and Ben.4. What if Rey grew up with Palpatine?
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Love to Ease [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1813729
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Love to Ease: Vice Versa

**Author's Note:**

> All AUs. Playing fast and loose with cause and effect.

**What if Rey grew up with Palpatine?**  
Fade, made to fade  
Passion's overrated anyway  
Say, say my name

Pryde always seemed so small when he stood before the dais. "We believe they will be searching for Exegol's location so they might strike at you again, Lord Palpatine."

Rey looked at her grandfather, watched something like emotion twitch the side of his mouth. "Yet another last gasp of a rebellion," he mused.

"Where there is order," Rey said, "chaos will always be sought." She turned her attention back to Pryde. "Do we know whether they're close?"

Pryde nodded. "Reports have come in that they retrieved the key from the desert in Pasaana." He cleared his throat. "Apparently Ochi lost it there when he executed two of my lord's...functionaries."

"My parents, you mean." Rey said. She didn't quite remember their faces, but she could still recall flashes of voices, fear. "They were fools to defy you."

"Indeed." Palpatine leaned forward. "If the key has been found, they will soon locate one of the wayfinders." He growled; only Rey could hear it. "Skywalkers," Palpatine said. "This will be the last time I allow them to meddle." He raised a hand, gesturing vaguely. "Go."

"My lord," Rey said, and left to gather her forces.

***

Given Snoke's place in the First Order hierarchy, it was a grave insult to leave him to command a mere division of gunships. So, Rey made it so. His reaction was entertaining, as well as how he fortified his mind, that he thought he could block her out. "The two Jedi are forming a defensive perimeter, Snoke," she observed. "And they've gathered some local reinforcements. See that they're taken care of."

Snoke compressed his mouth into a line. "And the third? He's already entered the wreckage." His hands were trembling; another failed part of that experiment. She would make sure they corrected the tremor in the next iteration. She was almost done toying with this one.

The gunship hovered over the Death Star, giving them a clear view of the third Jedi as he picked through the wreckage. She could almost feel the way the shattered metal shifted under his feet, the way the spray of the waves chilled him as he climbed down. "I'll see to him myself." Rey bared her teeth. "Ready my ship."

***

The descent into the Death Star was precarious. Rey scrambled down one jagged corridor, then pulled herself up another. She didn't know where the wayfinder was located, but she could find the third Jedi.

He was in a cavernous space, where the light fell in through glass, and seaspray made the metal slick. He was two floors above her, and she realized he could feel her coming, too.

When she reached him, he was standing in the center of the room, lightsaber at the ready. In the room behind him, she believed, was the wayfinder.

"My grandfather had prepared for the Skywalkers," she said, triggering her own sabers, walking slowly in a circle around him. "But I think you were a surprise."

The young Jedi frowned. "Grandfather? You mean--"

Rey rolled her eyes. "Yes." The connection between them was almost louder than their voices were. She let her sabers retract, and as they crackled, he let his die, too. "You didn't know about me, I take it?"

"Luke suspected there was another power behind Snoke but," he paused, "we sort of figured it would just be another Snoke." His gaze traced over her. "You're a surprise."

Rey tilted her head. "A pleasant one, apparently." Rey stepped toward him and saw his hands clench. For a moment, their memories overlay each other, sand and trial and a craving for power. He drew his breath in a hiss as the impressions echoed and rebound between them. Rey let herself shudder, watched him twitch. "Don't be afraid," she said. His eyes locked with hers. He leaned forward, just an inch. "I feel it, too."

She drew closer to him, or perhaps he approached her. "Even if he's your, you know," he said, and his voice took on a note of wonder, "you're not...not like him." They were an arm's length away from each other. "You don't care about the Empire. You're worried about making him proud."

"And you're worried you won't carry on the legacy of the Skywalkers, Luke and," she paused as she drew the thought into her mind, "your mother? You're a happy Jedi family." She made her voice mocking, but raised her hand, placed it against his chest. 

She felt him reach into her mind further, hesitant. Intrigued. He pressed his hand against her temple, his gaze devouring her face. As if he had been looking for her a long while. "Who are you?" he whispered. "Why are we connected?"

"I don't know." Rey felt his thoughts take a turn, watched his eyes darken. She curled her hand to the front of his robes and jerked him down to her. He tasted of copper and saltwater. She ran her other hand up his arm, his shoulder, wound her fingers into his hair, the strands long and damp from the waves.

His hands slid down her spine, clutched at her hips. Their minds clashed together in concert, want and wariness in a frantic glissando. His tongue slipped into her mouth, bled a bit as it caught on her teeth.

Rey had risen on her toes to get closer, and he was trailing his lips behind her ear, down the side of her neck. She took her breath in harsh gulps, smiled at his low moan as she slid her hands under his robes and tunic, seeking fevered skin. They shuffled backward somehow, their push and pull bringing them closer, pressing Rey's back against a plane of cold metal. She shivered at the shock and he pulled away, braced his hands on the wall on either side of her.

"Ben," she murmured, his name flowing into her mind like a tide. 

He smiled. "Rey." Every impression of him through the Force was anxious. Hopeful. As if he trembled in her grasp.

She thought, as she flicked her saber on, she might regret this later.

***

She dreamed of his last gasp of breath every night thereafter. 

**Author's Note:**

> Title and epigraphs adapted from Massive Attack's [**Dissolved Girl**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABQjT6gDKu0).


End file.
